Hispanic breakfast for parents a success at Seeliger

Not only did Maria Ramirez, 26, attend last week's Hispanic Outreach Breakfast at Seeliger Elementary School, she remained for the Veterans Day Ceremony honoring teacher Dennis Beeghly afterward.

The point of the breakfast was to engage parents in their students' learning and to get them more involved at the school.

"I think it's very important that parents learn how to work with their children when they're reading," the mother of three said. "I think it's important for us parents to work with children and not just leave everything up to teachers. Yes, I think the school should do more events like this."

The hour-long event brought in a large number of Spanish-speaking parents. Janette Ross, an English-as-a-second-language teacher at the school, said there are 149 students at the school who are from other countries.

"We feel we had a very successful show-up," she said. "In previous years, we've had this in the evening. It's hard to get parents here."

Ramirez said she learned about some after-school programs she wasn't aware existed.

"There is always more to learn," said the mother, who works with her children about 20 minutes each night on their homework. "There are always more ideas."